The eight-part show is being produced by Sony and Channel Nine Australia.

Dominic Monaghan will take the lead in Bite Club, a new miniseries from Sony Pictures TV and Channel Nine Australia.

The Lord of the Rings and Lost star – currently host of Travel Channel and BBC's Wild Things – will play a troubled police officer and dog handler in the eight-part drama, an unconventional police procedural, in which ex-lovers who survive a terrifying shark attack are thrown together by fate to hunt down murderers. Monaghan's character, Stephen Lamb, grew up in an abusive family, was chained to a dog and bitten as a child, and as a result has developed a serious psychosexual perversion that will play out across the series.

Production on the show, which will air on Channel Nine in Australia, started Monday.

Bite Club is being produced by Sue Seeary, with Jennifer Leacey directing. Andy Ryan, Jo Rooney, David Maher, David Taylor and Sarah Smith executive produce.